By the end of the 1940's the Yakima Valley was a checkerboard of library service areas. Sunnyside and Yakima each boasted a Carnegie library. Wapato, Selah, Buena, Toppenish and Granger had all organized their own city libraries. Smaller communities throughout the valley relied on the county library. These cities and towns took great pride in having a library, even though the costs involved kept growing.

In 1951 the county library and the city library in Yakima considered a merger. Moving books from the city library's overfilled shelves out to the rural libraries and using the city library as a cental office for the combined library system would solve some pressing problems, but they had two separate library boards and two head librarians. Who would be in charge? Follow the links below to learn how the Yakima Valley Regional Library was created.